


Normal as Possible

by lar_laughs



Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-12
Updated: 2010-08-12
Packaged: 2017-10-11 01:49:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/106993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lar_laughs/pseuds/lar_laughs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry never thought he would be a father quite so early in life.  He was definitely not ready for some of these early conversations.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Normal as Possible

"Why am I freak?"

Harry looked down at the little boy standing beside him, both of them surveying the children playing happily in their groups, tighter than any clique of older children could ever be. Teddy's hair was currently a shocking green, a colour found only on pub signs and picture books. His eyes, the shape and curtain of pain so like his father, stared back at his godfather with a frank appraisal of the situation before him. He'd tried playing on the slide and then the swings, but had been run off in both places.

"You aren't," Harry assured him, wishing he knew the right words to say. Andromeda kept telling him that being a father would come more easily over time but he was barely a husband. None of these new roles felt comfortable to him yet. He knew they would in time... but was that soon enough that he didn't ruin this little boy's life?

"Perhaps a different nose?" Teddy asked as his nose broadened and flattened so it appeared to take up most of his face.

It made Harry laugh to see him so serious yet sprouting a different facial feature as if it was so normal. This boy was no freak but he was frightfully funny, even when he wasn't trying to be. Several of the parents looked over toward them when they'd previously been trying hard to ignore the little boy that none of their children wanted to play with.

"Maybe a few freckles," Harry answered, bending down to look the little boy in the eye. "It doesn't matter what you look like, Teddy. You should know that. What matters is who you are inside."

There were tears in the corners of both their eyes as Teddy smiled, his nose going back to it's usual shape. "I want to be good inside, Harry. Like Mum and Dad were. Is it okay that I don't miss them? That I'm happy to be going to live with you and Aunt Ginny?"

"Didn't she tell you that you could call her just Ginny now?"

The little boy blushed. "Oh. Yes. I forget. She told me I could call her Mum if I wanted to."

Harry's heart squeezed painfully as he remembered the conversation. Since Teddy hadn't brought it up again, neither he nor Ginny knew if they should follow up on it. Neither of them wanted to replace his parents but they wanted him to be a part of their new family. Whatever made him comfortable, they'd decided late one night as they came back to Laurel Corners after visiting Teddy at Andromeda's house. She loved being a grandmother but knew that her lonely house wasn't a place for a little boy to grow up. Not when Harry and Ginny had expressed a great interest in taking the little boy in.

"Would you like that, do you think? To call her Mum?"

Teddy nodded, solemn once again. "Grandmother told me that it wouldn't be pushing my real mum away. I would just be special because I had two Mums and everyone else just had one."

"Would you like two Dad's, as well?" Harry asked, hesitant with the question that he'd been dreading. It seemed so much to ask of this little boy to take on the responsibility of these new names and family relationships. No five year old should have to deal with this.

"I think I would. I'd like a family like Victoire has. A Mum and a Dad and a brother."

"A brother?" Harry had heard the news but he didn't know that it had spread so far. And he wasn't sure how he felt about the pressure of giving Teddy the rest of the family he wanted.

"Yes. I think I'd like a brother." There was a flash of smile that was so like his mother, gone as quickly as it had appeared.

Harry tried not to grin back at him. "We'll see what we can do. Now how about we go see if that swing is free? I'll play with you."

Shaking his head, Teddy held up his hand as if to stop Harry from following him. "No. It's fine. I need to do this myself. Grandmother says I need to make more friends. She's worried about me."

The laugh and the sob met in his throat and he found himself strangling, short of breath as Teddy ran back toward the play area, his hair a bright mark even amoung the colourful clothing of the other children. It was amazing what Teddy seemed to hear in his little world of worried adults. He and Ginny would have to remember to keep their voices down when discussing important things. Like little brothers and sisters for their new son. They'd be talking about that a lot if he had his way. All this practice shouldn't go to waste.


End file.
